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TEAM REPRESENTATIVES –
Maurizio ARRIVABENE (Ferrari), Frederic VASSEUR (Sauber) Guenther STEINER
(Haas), Gil DE FERRAN (McLaren)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Maurizio, please can we start
with you? Welcome. There have been lots of announcements coming out of
Ferrari this past week. Your 2019 driver line-up is sorted, with Charles
Leclerc replacing Kimi Raikkonen. Talk us through how and why that change
has taken place?
Maurizio ARRIVABENE: How and why? It’s not clear? OK, I try to be clear.
When you make some choices like this, that are related to the driver, you
don’t have to look only at the short-term commitment but also at the
long-term commitment. A long-term commitment means it’s not only for next
year, it’s for the future of the team – how you are going to grow a young
talent, and what you want to expect from him for the future. That’s very
simple. It's not a decision taken by Mr Simpson; it’s a decision taken by
me, discuss it also with the top management, that is taking into
consideration many, many factors. This has nothing to do with the respect
that I have for Kimi, that is great, as a human being and a driver, but if
you have to do a choice, thinking about the future of the team, I think we
made the right choice, for us and for Kimi. And the way that we wrote the
press release was absolutely intentional. We were using a different style,
breaking a bit the rules of Ferrari, that is normally going to communicate
this in one line, broke the rules, giving also tribute and respect to Kimi
for what he has done with us and wishing him the best for the future, and
the best for the future it’s here.
Maurizio, just a second question on that: Charles Leclerc has had a huge
impact on Formula 1 this year. Just tell me how excited you are by him, as a
driver and what you think he can achieve in the sport?
MA: The first mistake is to put too much pressure on the shoulders of this
guy. It could be, potentially, a huge mistake. I signed with Charles in
November 2016 or November 2015 the first contract in the Ferrari Driver
Academy. In that contract we already designed and committed and signed and
wrote his future in Formula 1, as we have done with Giovinazzi, the same
thing. And that means we change a bit also the way that we organise the
Ferrari Drive Academy but also how we are going to develop the talent for
the future. So Charles Leclerc is not a big surprise, he’s one of the
talented drivers that we have in Formula 1. Thank God, it’s a guy that he
grew up with us and I hope that he is going to continue his career with us,
at least until 2022 for sure. Having said so, if you look at the overall
situation in the paddock, it’s an important sign that all the talent they
are giving to Formula… look at Mercedes. They make a choice a couple of
years ago with Bottas, a young driver, nearby a champion like Hamilton. This
guy of McLaren for next year: they have Carlos Sainz with a guy that is
considered a rookie. Next year Sauber have Kimi with Mr question mark and if
you look at Red Bull they were brave enough to have Verstappen nearby Gasly.
There is nothing strange in all of this but I think the good signal to
Formula 1 is that we are striving to look for, to create the future
champions.
Q: Thank you Maurizio. Gil, if we can turn to you, like Ferrari, as Maurizio
said, you have opted for youth, particular in one of your cars. What is it
about the performance of 18-year-old Lando Norris that made him a must-have
for McLaren?
Gil de Ferran: Well, a lot of thing, you know. I think, first of all, his
racing record is impeccable. All the way from karting – he was the youngest
world karting champion – throughout his career. And certainly what I have
been able to observe every time he is in the car is… he’s a natural. He
adapts very, very quickly, even in very unfamiliar conditions, with an
unfamiliar car. Many times he is immediately on the pace and I think he’s
also displayed a level of maturity during his Formula 2 performances this
year that certainly I have been looking at more closely, that has been quite
impressive and made us think that this is a talent for the future. I think
we certainly believe he’s got tremendous long-term potential and we decided
to go with that.
Q: With Carlos Sainz new to the team as well, there is certain lack of
continuity on the driver front. What sort of impact do you think that will
have?
MB: Certainly every time you have two new drivers it’s a more challenging
situation, because you have to learn how they are, how they operate.
Everybody operates in a slightly different way. Certainly as a team we aim
to support the drivers the best we can, taking into account their
differences. It certainly will take a little while for us to understand each
other, how the team operates, how the drivers operate and tailor that
support individually to Carlos and to Lando. Carlos is going into his fifth
year of Formula 1 and although he is very young he is quite an experienced
driver. Like I said before, he has shown quite well against different
team-mates, so I think we’re very confident we have a good pairing.
Q: Thank you Gil. Guenther, with Ferrari’s line-up sorted for next year,
where does that leave Haas with regard to your driver choice for 2019?
Guenther STEINER: I hope that we will announce our drivers in the next two
to three weeks, so we will let you know when we are ready to announce it.
Q: Can you just give us your thoughts… I’m not asking for names but the
performances of your current drivers?
GS: I think they’re doing pretty good! What more do you want to know – yeah,
the money, the names, everything! I think we are performing pretty good this
year, car-wise and driver-wise. We a few hiccups with one of the drivers in
the beginning of the year but lately I think we are performing where we
should be performing. Our drivers, at the moment, for us, looking in the
future, we are a young team so I don’t think we are ready to develop any
young drivers if you want to hear that.
Thank you for that.
GS: A pleasure!
Fréd, thank you for waiting. Yesterday in the press conference, Kimi wasn’t
that forthcoming when asked about his move to Sauber, so can you just put a
little bit of flesh on the bone for us. How did you persuade Kimi to
continue his career with your team?
Frédéric VASSEUR: I don’t want to say, like my future driver, ‘why not?’ but
I think for us coming from where we were last year… I had a look this
morning on the FP1 of 2017, I think it is a huge opportunity to have in our
car, in the Alfa Romeo Sauber, one of the three world champions who will
race next year. It’s a huge opportunity for the team, for the brand, for
everybody. We know that we are quite a young team also and we need to have
someone leading the team with a huge experience and I think Kimi will
fulfill all the parts of this.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Maurizio. How concerned are you by the errors
being made by your lead driver in several races this year, and questionable
race management decisions by the team – and what are you doing about them?
MA: Oh my God! Again! OK, I start from the second one and I want to be
clear, once and forever. I mean, I would ask some of you, all of you, who is
so crazy to give team order to a driver at the start of the race? I mean, we
do our thing with the maximum professional effort. Before the race we are
looking at the video of the start of the race, our team manager is giving
instruction on the best line to follow to the driver. The only team order
you can tell to the driver at the first corner is “guys, I would like to
have both of the cars OK.” All the rest, I mean, it’s nonsense. I explain
you the reason why. Kimi, in the case of Monza, was in pole position. Do we
agree for once on this? He was in pole position right? Sebastian was 8m from
him. How you think that Kimi can look on his side where Sebastian is? In
your opinion, the order is “Kimi, please slow down when you start, and don’t
worry if Hamilton and all the others, they are overtaking you.” What we are
discussing about? That is the answer to your question. And then, team order,
do you think the team orders, they were invented in Monza last weekend? I
don’t think so. It’s 28 years that I’m in Formula One and I always heard
team orders. There are many ways to give it to the team: before, during,
after. That’s not important. The problem in Monza is that you have no time
to give team order to anyone, because at the third corner it’s happened what
has happened. So, this is the reality. I mean, don’t expect me to give team
orders to the driver at the start of the race, looking forward to the first
corner. It’s too dangerous and it’s crazy.
And your assessment of Vettel’s performances this year?
MA: You call it mistakes but if you look in Formula One everybody is making
mistakes. Bigger or smaller. If we are a team, we fail and we win together
so I don’t want to point my finger at Sebastian. I mean, nobody was happy
after Monza but think about the rest of the team. If in Monza I was pointing
my finger at Sebastian, think about a problem on aero, a problem on the
pitstop, a problem on the engine. The guys, they are responsible for the
different areas, they could think ‘OK, if he’s pointing the finger at
Sebastian, next time it’s my turn.’ It’s not what I want. The only mistake
you see in front of you is me. I’m responsible for the team. When the result
is not coming, it’s my responsibility. Not the responsibility of Sebastian
or the engineer or the responsibility of the mechanics. It’s my
responsibility. If you want somebody to blame, he’s in front of you. The job
was done already. I tell you, you don’t need to continue, but if you want,
I’m still here! But something that is very important, I accept any criticism
because in three and a half years I didn’t want anything, OK? So I accept
the criticism from everybody, especially from the people who won before me –
but in good faith not in bad faith. Because bad faith is not correct. I’m a
correct person and I would like to hear comments that are in good faith, and
then I’m accepting everything. As I said, I didn’t want anything.
Q: (Joe Saward – Auto week) Maurizio, now you’re feeling talkative, can you
talk about Ferrari’s attitude to the budget cap? Who makes the decision and
what is your thinking and has it changed recently?
MA: I mean, you talk in general about the budget cap. Of course the
objective of everybody is to save money, to reduce costs. Then, the question
is not the ‘what’, it’s based on the ‘how’. How do we want to do it? How do
we want to maintain Formula One at the pinnacle of motorsport as it is? How
do we want to continue to develop cars that are beautiful, also for the
public. I mean, it’s not an easy equation. Everybody, they go sometimes
their way but I think at the end we can find the solution. I was looking at
the car presented a couple of days ago by Ross. It’s a good exercise, I was
asking our engineers what they thought about this, they said it’s a bit
underwhelming in their opinion and it looks like an old champ car. But, you
know, it’s an exercise. Sometimes we go up here to have this kind of result.
I think this is the game that everybody plays. Concerning the future, you
mean the concorde agreement of course. Starting from the point, I spoke with
our CEO and everybody, they want to save money, as I said at the beginning,
to reduce the costs, not to save money, they are two different things. It
depends how you do it. The decision, it is something that is not mine
because it is going to be a strategic decision that is involving the overall
group. I mean, if in somehow accepting an agreement that is not taking into
consideration where the Ferrari is in the market and the DNA of Ferrari, I
repeat, it’s a kind of strategic decision and it’s not under my
responsibility. Of course, I give all the information we discuss about this
but he is the person that is going to talk with the appropriate people.
Q: (Gaeton Vigneron – RTBF) Sorry to not be original but another one for you
Maurizio. Starting from the point that Giovinazzi could go to Sauber, Kvyat
could go to Toro Rosso, you could lose your two simulator drivers. My
question is, are you ready for that, have you got an idea to get another one
to fulfil this role – and Stoffel Vandoorne could be a driver for that?
MA: We are always ready for everything. No concern. You will see about the
future of Giovinazzi I think in the next few weeks, so I’m not concerned at
all.
Q: (Cheng Jin – Car and Fan) There’s a lot of rumours surrounding the future
of Mick Schumacher because if he wins the F3 championship, he will get a
super licence, so for Gunther and for Frederic, neither of your teams have
announced their driver line-up for next year. Will you be interested in him?
And for Maurizio and Gil, will you be considering putting him into your
driver academy?
GS: I think there is quite a hype about Mick Schumacher and he’s doing very
well at the moment in Formula Three. We haven’t looked at it, as I’ve said
before. We, at the moment, as a young team, we prefer to go with drivers
with experience, but I think there is a future for Mick Schumacher in
Formula One so let’s see what he’s doing in the next years and what his
plans are. Maybe he doesn’t want to go straight to Formula One.
FV: Yes, so far I don’t know if Mick has the 40 points for the super licence
but honestly, I think there is a huge step between F3 and F1 and with the
small number of test days we have during the winter, I think it’s – I don’t
want to say impossible because we will see – but it’s quite difficult to do
the step and it will make sense probably for him to do Formula Two or
something like this. But he could have a link with a Formula One team, he
could do some FP1… There are many ways to prepare for F1.
Q: One of those ways could be as a simulator driver, Gil. Would McLaren
consider him?
GdeF: Look, obviously he’s doing very well in Formula Three and certainly he
has a shot for the championship and the Formula Three championship is a very
difficult one and I think a very good indication of how good you are so
clearly he’s very good. We have not had any contact with him but we say as
McLaren we are always looking throughout the motor sport arena globally, in
a way. I think I would second what Frederic said: in a way I wish we had
more opportunities to be able to work with young talent, perhaps more
testing and different things like this, to be able to establish a
relationship and help in the development of drivers like Mick.
MA: Concerning Mick Schumacher, the most important thing is to let him grow
without giving pressure. The recent results were very very good and I wish
to him a great career. With a name like this, that wrote the historical
pages of the Ferrari history, I think the door at Maranello is always open
of course, but without burning the step, that is, a Schumacher family
decision but let the guys have fun. I always repeat this, being focused,
concentrated but at the same time have fun and to grow up slowly but
certainly. Then we will see about the future. How can you say no, in
Maranello, to a name like this?
Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) Fred, what do you expect Kimi to bring to
your team next year that you haven’t got already and can’t get elsewhere?
FV: Clearly Kimi has huge experience in F1, I think he already told that
yesterday. For the team, we are building up every single department and I
think he will be very supportive in the process. I think from aero to design
office to track engineering, tyre management, I think everybody in the team
is more than welcome to have Kimi on board in the future. It’s a step
forward for us for sure. This is on the technical side and on the more
marketing and commercial side, for sure it’s a huge push and if you have a
look at what we had last week in terms of social media, so it was probably
the first time in our lives that we have so many connections. On both sides,
I think it will be supportive for us.
Q: Fred, are there still a lot of people at the team who can remember him
from 2001?
FV: Some, yeah. For sure, I was not there but some guys came to my office
saying ‘ah, superb that Kimi’s back.’ But I don’t want to consider the fact
that Kimi’s coming back that we have to think about the future, not about
the past.
Q: (Joe Saward – Auto week) Fred, talking about Mr Question Mark, can you
tell us how many possible Questions Marks there are? Is it just two drivers
we’re looking at or are there more drivers to be taken into account?
FV: Please, the last two weeks for me have been a bit in a rush on the
driver market and if I can have some days off from this? After Singapore we
will sit down with all the persons involved in the discussions and we will
take a decision quite soon because I think it’s also good for the team to
have a clear answer but it will be soon.
Q: (Jake Michaels – ESPN) Maurizio, you said earlier that Kimi’s move from
Ferrari to Sauber next year is the best thing for Ferrari and for Kimi. Can
you explain why that’s the case and why the best thing for Kimi isn’t to
stay at Ferrari?
MA: It’s quite simple. I also said that it’s very important to look at the
situation of the team in perspective, perspective meaning two or three
years. So in my opinion, that is justifying enough our choice to have a
young driver for next year, to grow up and that’s it. It’s not a decision
that is look on the actual situation or only to next year. My job is to look
forward to the future of the team. That was the justification of the choice.
Q: (Jerome Pugmire – AP) Maurizio, just to follow up on that, Kimi said
yesterday it wasn’t his decision and wasn’t his choice. Can you explain how
he took the decision and did he try and persuade you to change your mind?
How did he feel about it?
MA: I think Kimi was funny also yesterday during the press conference. I try
to be funny too. What did you expect Kimi to tell you, that Homer Simpson
took the decision? Of course I took the decision but I have to say that the
relationship with Kimi is so good that he understands. It’s not only a
question of telling him this is the decision. If you do my job properly,
it’s to take him through the process, and I took him through the process of
the decision and he didn’t even try to say ‘yeah, I would like you to change
your mind’ or something. He’s a professional driver. Then I heard many other
things like ‘ah, you know, telling him in Monza was the wrong time.’ Think
about if I had told him in Belgium and Sebastian was winning the race? Kimi
was in the same position and then it was wrong to tell him in Belgium. So
the right time is not written on the paper, but what is written on the paper
is that when we sign contracts with a driver, we sign a contract with
professional drivers. I always talk with my two drivers as professional
drivers and I’m expecting from him the maximum of professional effort and to
use all their professional skills and Kimi is one of them. Kimi was so
nervous and so unhappy that I told him on Thursday, if I’m not wrong, in
Monza but he was so unhappy that he made pole position on Saturday. We’re
talking with professional drivers.
FV: I have to make him unhappy ever single weekend!
MA: Yeah, in fact that’s what I was thinking afterwards, because when I read
some criticism and I said I accept the criticism, I was thinking OK, if it’s
like this, I’m going to make him unhappy every weekend so he’s going to give
us the pole position. Guys. We are talking about professional drivers not
kids that they are driving at the luna park. |
